


Have You Seen The Ghost Of Tom?

by tattooeddevil



Category: Supernatural
Genre: Dark Magic, Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2012-09-06
Updated: 2012-09-06
Packaged: 2017-11-13 16:40:18
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 13,580
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/505571
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/tattooeddevil/pseuds/tattooeddevil
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Sam hates Halloween, but so far it’s always been unfounded. He gets his reason this year.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Have You Seen The Ghost Of Tom?

Every year around October 28, Sam starts to get anxious. 3 days before Halloween, like clockwork. He hates All Hallows Eve with a vengeance, despite the fact that nothing - absolutely jack squat - has ever happened on October 31st. It’s just, ever since finding out what’s possibly lying in wait to come out when the veil is the thinnest is enough to make him feel on edge and raise his pulse with a few beats per minute. He’s not nervous, just... Vigilant.

Dean used to make fun of him when he got overly alert to everything around them, almost jumpy with any and all sounds. Sam always scowled and said someone should be watchful, since both Dean and their father seemed completely relaxed with the knowledge any monster could chose that year to finally take a shot at it and try and break into the human world to wreak some havoc. Dean would just roll his eyes and Sam would stick out his tongue and get back to his research. He later learned that Dean and dad were not so much relaxed as they were prepared.

That niggling feeling in the back of his mind, that starts a few days before Halloween, never left him, no matter how many quiet, undisturbed Halloween nights they experienced. It had died down a little by the time he was sixteen, but it never really left completely. Last year, his first year at Stanford, he hadn’t done much about it, too busy struggling to keep up with the first weeks of college, too busy freaking out his new classmates would start asking questions about him and who he was, too busy feeling guilty for leaving his family like that, too busy being angry at his father and brother for not supporting him. Halloween came and went uneventful and Sam pushed the tiny spark in the back of his brain away in favor of studying for his exams the following week. He slept with his hunting knife under his pillow, like Dean always did, anyway.

His friends - the few he managed to not drive away with his stand-off-ish attitude and mysterious persona - had nagged him to go to one of the many Halloween parties around campus and he had managed to refuse them all without losing any of his friends. This year though, everyone was that much more determined to get him out of his dorm room and at a party. They all knew he didn’t have any exams he needed to study for. His roommate Luis had taken to bribery even. He casually let slip that Jessica, the cute blonde from Sam’s Economics class, was gonna be at one of the parties and that he could hook Sam up with her if he went. Damn Luis and his tendency to get Sam drunk and have him spill on his little crush.

Unable to come up with a good excuse - no exams and the prospect of a possible date with Jessica Moore - he’d agreed to go to one party, one. Luis had whooped and promised it would be “epic”. Sam had just rolled his eyes and gone back to his homework. No exams didn’t mean no assignments.

******

Sam fully expects his weird ‘something’s-gonna-happen-at-Halloween’ feeling to turn out to be nothing again this year. After all, it’s been almost twenty years of Sam being on edge for absolutely nothing. He still has the strange tingle in the pit of his stomach, he’s just gotten really good at ignoring it. But then a piercing, icy scream goes through the hallways in the middle of the night on October 27. He almost falls flat on his face in his hurry to get some sweats on and run out. Heart hammering in his throat, his mind playing a constant loop of I knew this was gonna happen one day, I knew. There are dozens of people in the hall, all of them in pajamas, with bed-hair and squinty eyes against the overhead lights switching on. The RA, Daniel, is trying to send people back into their rooms while making his way to the side of the hall the scream came from, but it’s not really working.

Sam takes a few steps into the long hallway, intending to join Daniel while surreptitiously trying to get a chance to see what is going on, but he’s stopped by the shocked faces of his dorm neighbors. Their eyes big and scared, flitting between his face and his waist where he’s holding... Shit. His hunting knife. His initial urge is to hide it behind his back but they’re not stupid and he can’t pretend it wasn’t there. Instead, he blushes and stammers something about a kitchen knife and cutting steak and tries to tuck it in the back of his sweatpants under his shirt. Judging by the looks in their faces, his neighbors aren’t buying it, no matter how sleepy they are, and Sam figures he’s just taken one step closer to being the school freak. Again.

Realizing there’s not much he can do about that right now, he makes his way to the single dorm room where Daniel is trying to calm down a close to hysterical blonde. Sam recognizes her; transferred from the dorm across campus this year, soft spoken, nice and with a kind word for everyone. He doesn’t know her very well, they have one class together and different groups of friends, but he’s heard other girls talking about her. Apparently she transferred from the other side of the campus after she dumped one of the jocks from the football team who then kept harassing her. Everyone seems to like her, but he figures girls will be girls; rumors flew about her refusing to have sex with her ex-boyfriend, that she got caught smoking pot and that she’s had a nose job. Sam goes with what he knows: just a nice enough girl from his dorm who needs help. She’s huddled in the Daniel’s arms now, bawling her eyes out while trying to tell him what happened.

“My s-s-skin w-was... Rot-rotting and... And... nasty and... Oh god!”

She wails again and Daniel tries to push her face against his chest in an attempt to smother her worst noise. His eyes find Sam’s and Sam can practically feel him begging for help. Sam nods at him and then turns around to get everyone into their rooms. They all go easily enough once Daniel herds the girl back into her own room and the source of their entertainment is gone.

When just about everyone’s gone back to bed, Sam checks up on the girl. She’s huddled on her bed, wrapped in blankets. Her cheeks are still tear-stained and she’s trembling like leaf caught in a hurricane. Daniel is sitting at the end of her bed, clearly uncomfortable and unsure of what to do. Sam barely manages to not roll his eyes - shouldn’t RA’s be good at talking to students in distress? - and sits down next to the girl so he can put a gentle hand on her arm to get her attention. She looks up and gives him a watery smile that Sam returns, aiming for reassuring.

“Hey, how’re you holding up?”

The girl grimaces.

“Like shit.”

Sam chuckles softly.

“Point. What’s your name?”

“T-tanya.”

“Okay Tanya, I am Sam. I live at 523c.”

Tanya nods.

“I’ve seen you around. You live with Luis.”

“Yeah, that’s me. Listen, is there anything we can do for you?”

Tanya hesitates and then nods her head. Her voice is a whisper when she answers.

“I don’t wanna sleep here tonight. Not alone.”

Sam glances at Daniel, who immediately makes a move to leave. Sam glances at him in acknowledgement, he figures the RA can arrange someplace for her to stay with other people. He turns back to Tanya and makes a show of arranging himself as non-threatening as he can.

“Maybe you wanna talk about what happened?”

He watches as a slew of emotions cross Tanya’s face until she swallows hard and her face settles on fear.

“It- It was horrifying. One moment I was sitting at my desk, sending out some email invitations and the next...”

A sob escapes her throat and Sam squeezes her arm again, hopefully in a supportive manner. It seems to help, because Tanya takes a deep breath to steady herself and continues her story with an unsteady voice.

“My hands, they were... Rotting a-and bugs were... c-c-crawling out of them. And th-then my arms and th-the r-rest of my b-b-body.”

Rotting body? Sam eyes Tanya carefully, but there is no trace of anything rotting on her body whatsoever. Tanya spots him looking and sighs.

“It’s gone now, Daniel didn’t believe me either.”

“Hey, no! It’s not that I don’t believe you, honest. Trust me, I’ve heard weirder.”

Not what he meant to say out loud, but he wanted to reassure her, and she doesn’t seem to hear him anyway.

“I know I didn’t dream it, I wasn’t even asleep! I don’t do drugs, I wasn’t hallucinating!”

Sam holds his hands up in defense.

“I know, I know, okay? Look, why don’t I check the room and make sure nothing else strange is going on and when Daniel comes back you can go with him to sleep somewhere else, okay?”

Tanya sighs again and nods. It doesn’t matter Sam isn’t planning on checking the room to make sure she’ll be okay, but she doesn’t have to know what he’s really looking for. Daniel comes back just as Tanya’s finishing packing an overnight bag.

“You can sleep with Jessica if that’s okay?”

Tanya nods, throwing a grateful smile at Sam.

“Thanks for doing this, Sam.”

“You’re welcome. I’ll stop by tomorrow and let you know everything’s alright, yeah?”

“Yeah, thanks.”

He watches Tanya leave with Daniel, waiting for them to round the corner to go back to her room and search every inch of. Under her desk, chair, bed. Inside her closet, bags, her file cabinet. He even checks her laptop for any weirdness. It isn’t until he’s leaving that he spots something on top of the doorframe. He reaches to grab the small bundle of twigs and hair sticking out. He doesn’t recognize it, but he’s pretty sure where it came from.

“Damn witches.”

He sweeps the room one last time, finding nothing else, then takes the hex bundle back to his room. Luis is already fast asleep, so he puts everything away for now - knife back under the pillow, hex bundle in a curse box he stole from dad - and decides to research tomorrow. Tanya’s safe for now and there’s nothing he can do.

It isn’t until he’s halfway back to sleep that he realizes this is a case.

******

His alarm wakes Sam at seven am, his first class is half an hour later. His day is so crammed full of classes he doesn’t get to research the hex bundle until he gets back to his dorm at four pm. Luis is out so he takes the curse box with the bundle in it and his laptop to the living room. It takes him less than an hour to find the origins of the hex bundle and its aim. It’s very low key, beginner’s black magic but dangerous nonetheless. The bundle is used to set a hex on someone, targeting a person for spells and curses. Which means whoever did this didn’t have to be nearby to work the spell. It also means this person would have had access to Tanya’s room and her hairbrush.

Sam checks in with Daniel, the RA, to get the room number of where Tanya is staying and crosses the campus. The sign on the door says “Jessica & Stacy” and when the door opens he is momentarily stunned into silence with surprise.

Jessica Moore looks at Sam questioningly and when Sam doesn’t speak her expression changes to amusement.

“Cat got your tongue?”

That jolts Sam from his shock, making him blush deeply. He scratches the back of his neck self-consciously.

“Uhm, hi. I’m uh... Sam?”

Jessica laughs, making him blush even harder.

“Are you asking me?”

“No! I mean... No. I’m Sam. Me. Sam.”

“I’m Jessica, nice to meet you.”

He manages to shake her outstretched hand without making an ever bigger fool of himself. But god, she is gorgeous. He realizes he’s staring when Jessica laughs and waves her hand in front of his face.

“Zoning out on me, Sam?”

Sam’s pretty sure the blood never left his face between this time and the last. You’d think he would have learned how to talk to women from Dean.

“Sorry, sorry. I just came to uh... check on Tanya?”

“Are you asking me again?”

He stammers something, completely tongue-tied and Jessica takes pity on him, thank god. She invites him in, stepping aside to let him pass.

“Tanya’s in the shower, she should be back in a few minutes. My roommate’s out too, I hope you don’t mind waiting with just me?”

He wants to say “hell no!” but sticks with a safer nod. Jessica gestures for him to sit down in the only chair in the room and he folds himself into it. He’s furiously trying to come up with something to say, but then Jessica’s phone rings and she throws him an apologetic look.

“Mind if I take this?”

“Not at all.”

Sam uses the time she’s on the phone to think about what happened last night and how he handled it. The words he threw in his father’s face when he left still ring in his ears. ”I just want to be normal! No monsters, no demons, no nothing. Just a normal guy with a normal life.” He had meant it too, but last night, last night had nothing to do with wanting it or not, it all came down to helping the victim and finding whoever was responsible. He hadn’t thought anything of it, he’d just acted. He grimaces at the thought of himself standing in the hallway with his big hunting knife in his hand. He really screwed that one up.

He also knows he can’t back out now. He’s invested in this, he knows there’s a witch looking to hurt Tanya and he can’t just walk away from that. He’s not that guy. Tanya needs help and he’s the only one that can. His father would be so, so smug if he saw Sam now.

Tanya comes back from her shower when Jessica’s still on the phone. She still looks a little sad, and worried maybe, but she smiles when she sees Sam and gives him a short hug.

“Thanks for your help last night.”

“Don’t mention it.”

“I hope you’re here to tell me it’s okay to go back to my room? I don’t mind spending time with my friends, but dorm rooms really aren’t made for three people.”

Sam chuckles and nods.

“Yeah, you’re all set. Nothing weird.”

“Thanks.”

Jessica hangs up the phone just in time to hear Sam confirm Tanya can go back to her room. She hugs Tanya close and presses a kiss to her cheek.

“You’re always welcome here if you get another nightmare, okay?”

Tanya’s face clouds over at Jessica’s words, clearly not happy with the assumption it was just a nightmare, but she doesn’t say anything. She nods and follows Sam out into the hallway.

“Thanks for everything, I’ll text you tomorrow.”

Jessica glances at Sam before darting forward and quickly hugging him.

“Thanks for taking care of her.”

Sam barely manages to mumble a response - he’s pretty sure he meant to say ‘it’s fine’ but he’s doesn’t know how much of that actually got formed into words - before he blushes bright red. Jessica laughs and waves them off.

“Go, make sure she gets to her dorm okay. I am holding you responsible if anything happens!”

Something about her words jars Sam, even though they’re said as a joke. I am holding you responsible if anything happens to Sam while I’m gone. Take care of your little brother! He never had those words directed at him, but he can still hear dad’s voice barking them at Dean when he left for a hunt when they were little and not allowed to come on hunts yet. Dean always took that responsibility more than serious and Sam plans to do the same thing for Tanya. The witch will not hurt her if Sam has anything to say about it.

******

Sam returns Tanya to her room, makes one last quick sweep before declaring it all safe. She hugs him in thanks again, clearly relieved and Sam goes back to his own room. He spends the rest of the day researching and trying to figure out how to ask Tanya about who she thinks is out to hurt her without looking like a complete freak. Or more of a freak than he already looks. Luis is out again, so he orders pizza and stays up until he can’t keep his eyes open any longer. It’s two am by the time he lays down in bed and if he hadn’t been woken up by pounding on his door, he could have slept late.

He heaves himself out of bed and glances at the clock. Seven am. On a Saturday morning. He mumbles something about this better being good as he pulls on his sweats and goes to open the door. Tanya’s on the other side, eyes filled with fear. Sam’s immediately awake and alert.

“Tanya? What happened?”

Tanya shakes her head and points her finger at her open mouth. She makes a lot of fast, jerky movements with her hands that Sam really can’t follow, so he stops her by pulling her inside of his room and sitting her down.

“Slow down, I have no idea what you’re trying to say.”

The irony of that isn’t lost on him. He hunts for a pen and paper so she can write it down for him.

**I CAN’T SPEAK**

“What do you mean, you can’t speak?”

**I LITERALLY CAN NOT TALK**

“You lost your voice or you can’t find the words?”

Sam’s thinking all kinds of things, from pneumonia to stroke, but Tanya shakes her head and writes.

**NO VOICE**

“Okay. So, pneumonia or anything?”

**NO! NO SORE THROAT, NOT SICK, JUST CAN’T TALK**

“Huh.”

He deflates a little now he knows it’s nothing lethal. He’s pretty sure it’s some sort of mute spell, but he has no idea how to lift it or break it. So he just stares at her for a few moments, trying to gather his thoughts. Tanya stares right back, impatient and a little confused.

**AREN’T YOU GOING TO SAY SOMETHING? DO SOMETHING?**

He’s flattered she thinks he can be of any help at all. For all she knows, she’s just lost her voice and normally, it would take rest and cough drops to get it back. It’s not like he’s a doctor or something.

“I don’t know what to do. I mean, I can’t give you your voice back.”

**BUT I NEED MY VOICE, I’M HAVING A PARTY THIS AFTERNOON!**

“Just play loud music, no one will hear each other.”

**FUNNY**

Sam can practically hear her sarcasm through the paper. He smirks, maybe he shouldn’t tease her. She’s the victim of some stay-at-home witch, which is not funny at all. If anything goes wrong, not only Tanya could get seriously hurt, but the amateur witch too. Not that he’d mind too much.

“What kind of party? Can I help with anything?”

He figures, if it’s in her room, he can get a chance at sweeping the place again, find the hex that enabled the witch to set this spell on Tanya.

**COCKTAIL TASTING FOR HALLOWEEN**

“You’re hosting a Halloween party?”

**YOUR INVITATION IS IN THE MAIL**

“That’s not why I asked.”

They laugh, slightly uncomfortable, but Sam just got his first clue. Every dorm gets to hold their own Halloween party and whoever gets to host it is immediately dubbed cool and awesome. Tanya is not only sweet and generally already loved by most people in their dorm, she's also new. Which means someone in the house does not like being passed over by the new girl that everybody is crushing on already. A dangerous situation, if this person is jealous and knows a thing or two about black magic. Crap.

**WHAT DO I DO?**

Sam shrugs apologetically.

"I don't think there is much you can do. Learn sign language?"

Tanya glares, but doesn't reply. Sam can see her realizing there really isn't anything he or she can do about it, and that's Sam's opening.

"I can help if you want? I can maybe translate or help or something?"

It's a bullshit offer, she'll be fine without him, but she seems relieved he offers to be there and that was what he was hoping for. Tanya nods.

**PLEASE, THANKS**

"Any time."

**I’LL BE BACK AFTER CLASS? COME GET YOU?**

“Sure, I don’t have any classes, so whenever you’re ready.”

It’s three pm when she gets back, voice still gone. They communicate through notes until Sam’s clear on what needs to be done at the party. He feels bad for lying to Tanya a little bit about why he’s helping her, but he needs an excuse to get in her room again and try and find what set the curse on her. He figures he can at least explain the different cocktails to the other girls before they taste.

He follows Tanya to her room, where not half an hour later he is surrounded by chattering sophomore girls. He surreptitiously studies them, trying to gauge if one of them is the witch that’s out to hurt Tanya. There’s Diane, a soft spoken girl with long red hair who laughs pretty much all the time. There’s Jacky, a tiny little girl with short blond hair and a feisty attitude. There’s the twins Jamie and Sarah, who mother-hen Tanya and coo over Sam. There’s Jessica, but Sam dismisses her as a suspect immediately - yes, he is fully aware he’s being prejudiced, thank you. And there’s Mona, possibly the sweetest girl he’s ever met. They all ooh and aah over Tanya and make her sit and do nothing so she can’t get any sicker. None of them stick out as vindictive towards Tanya though; he’s hit a dead end. Besides, it might not even be any of the girls in the room. It could be anyone, Tanya has friends and classmates over all the time.

It takes him some time to search Tanya’s room without getting caught, but he manages to look in just about every nook and cranny within an hour. Nothing. He’s only not checked the closet yet, but how is he supposed to get into a girl’s closet? In the end he doesn’t have to come up with anything.

Sarah trips and spills her cocktail all over Sam’s shirt. It’s something pink and fruity smelly, but Sam’s mostly focused on the stickiness of the concoction.

“Oh my god, Sam, I’m so sorry!”

“No, don’t worry a-”

“Take it off, I’m sure Tanya’s got a shirt left from her last boyfriend. It might be a little small on you, but at least it’s dry and non-sticky, right?”

Sarah’s voice gets lost somewhere in the depths of Tanya’s closet before it comes back when she stretches to her full length to try and reach the top shelves. The opportunity couldn’t have landed in his lap any better.

“Let me search for it, Sarah, you girls go back to your tasting, yeah? I can find it.”

He rummages around in Tanya’s closet for a few minutes. He finds the shirt - he has to fight his grin when he catches Jessica glance at him when he takes the wet one off - and also finds the hex. It’s tucked into the far corner of the closet, buried beneath a dusty bag. It’s the same as before; some twigs and a few hairs. He manages to stuff the hex in his pocket while changing his shirt before turning back to the girls.

“Found it.”

Sarah smiles at him and then goes back to her friends. Sam watches Tanya and her friends putter around for a few more minutes, the hex practically burning in his pocket, and finally decides they’ll be fine without him.

“Hey Tanya, are you okay here? I just remembered I promised Luis I’d help him with Trig.”

Tanya nods and waves him off distractedly, so Sam leaves. Back in his own room, he burns the hex in the trashcan and then flushes the ashes. Not twenty seconds later, his phone rings, the display flashing ‘Tanya’.

“Tanya?”

“I got my voice back!”

Sam laughs at her excited tone.

“That’s good. What happened?”

“I don’t know, I could suddenly just talk again.”

“Good.”

“Thanks for helping out, Sam.”

“Anytime.”

He hangs up and stares at the phone for a while. The hexes aren’t just to target a victim, but once they’re destroyed the curse lifts. Not only an amateur witch then, but also a very weak one. Now if only he could figure out who it is.

******

It’s quiet that night and Sam manages a full ten hours of sleep. He dreams about Tanya though; the flesh rotting off her bones, her vocal chords getting ripped out by invisible hands, poisoned cocktails choking her and snakes crawling through her bed. He wakes up bathing in sweat and it takes him a few moments to get back with reality.

They’re just dreams.

He showers quickly so he can dress in his workout clothes and head over to the campus gym. He’s halfway through his set when he hears someone calling his name.

“Sam! Hey, Sam!”

Tanya sidles up next to his cross-trainer, wearing a huge smile.

“Hey Tanya. You seem very happy today?”

“I am! The cocktail tasting was a huge success and I am on my way to pick up the last decorations. Things are all set for the party tomorrow. You’re coming too, right?”

“Yeah, I’ll be there.”

“Great! Gotta get going! See you later, Sam!”

Sam finishes his set ten minutes later and heads for the showers. He’s got his thumbs hooked in the waistband of his boxers when he hears the screaming. He struggles back into his shirt and makes a run for the ladies’ dressing rooms, where the screaming came from. There are at least fifteen women bundled up in robes and towels outside, all of them wide-eyed and shaking like leaves.

“What happened?”

One of the women looks up at Sam and points a shaky finger at the closed door of the dressing room.

“Snakes.”

Tanya comes stumbling through the door and straight into Sam just as he opens his mouth to ask ‘what snakes?’

“Tanya? What happened?”

Tanya’s cheeks are smeared with tears and she’s shaking like the other women. Her voice wobbles as she explains what they saw.

“T-there were... s-s-snakes. Everywhere. B-big, hissing snakes. Th-they came a-after us!”

Sam pulls her against his chest when she bursts out in tears, while gym employees check the dressing room. They come out looking slightly confused, shrugging.

“Nothing to see. There’s nothing in there.”

Several women start objecting, all swearing they saw the snakes, but the trainers stand their ground.

“There’s nothing in there, certainly not snakes. You can go back in.”

Among a lot of nervous chatter and grumbling, the women go back to the dressing room. Sam holds Tanya until she’s calmed down before sending her back in too.

“Just... Check my bag before I have to open it?”

Tanya carries her bag out, holding it like it’s a ticking time bomb and Sam opens it gingerly. He’s almost positive he’ll find nothing but a hex in there, but he tries to play along with Tanya, hoping it won’t give him away. Last thing he needs is for Tanya to refuse his help because she thinks he’s some kind of freak with a mental issue when there’s a witch after her.

He finds the hex easily enough. It’s so small it fits into his hand without sticking out. He holds out the gym bag for Tanya to peer into and make sure it’s free of snakes herself so he can stuff the hex in his pocket quickly, before Tanya can see it.

“Nothing in here. It’s safe.”

Tanya smiles sadly.

“Thanks, Sam. You must think I’m crazy.”

“I don’t. Honestly, I don’t think you’re crazy. Just... Tired from planning the party maybe.”

Tanya nods, but it’s not very convincing.

“Yeah. I guess so.”

He watches her turn and go back into the dressing room to change. A quick study of the hex reveals the same bundle as the previous two. Twigs and hair. The big question is, who is doing this and how is he or she getting close enough to stuff the hexes in Tanya’s stuff? More importantly, how is Sam going to find out without seeming like a crazy stalker with delusions?

Sam goes back to his dorm and locks himself in his room. Luis had looked at him funny when he stormed past, but his mind is on other things. Like what the hell he can do to find out who the witch is and how he can stop the spells on Tanya. Preferably she’d stay in her room until he finds out, alone and not in any contact with people that might stuff hexes in her stuff. He knows he can’t ask her to do that though. Not only because he has no reason as far as she is concerned and also because she’s hosting the most important party of the year - or so he’s been told. Wait.

The most important party of the year. He vaguely remembers Luis complaining about the cat fights around the dorm over who got to host the party. Close friendships had ended over it. Girls hadn’t talked to each other for weeks afterwards. Jealousy. Sam hates to stereotype, but a jealous woman is a scorned woman. He might have underestimated the importance of this party. Shit.

He rips open his door and rushes over to Luis, who is studying at their tiny dining room table.

“Dude, last year’s Halloween party. How many girls were fighting over hosting that?”

Luis looks at him like he’s gone crazy, and Sam supposes he should have somehow packaged the question into something less random, but it’s out there now and he really needs to know the answer.

“Uhm. About ten, I guess?”

“Okay, and how about this year?”

“I guess about the same? Not much changed since last year. Just Tanya and Stacy moving in and Hannah and Jo moving out. Both Tanya and Stacy wanted to host and I guess Tanya won it.”

“Were the other girls really mad?”

Luis merely raises an eyebrow in response and Sam throws his hands up in defeat.

“Jealous women, I don’t get it, man.”

Luis snickers and goes back to his books.

“Preaching to the choir, dude.”

Sam goes back to his room and grabs pen and paper to make a list of possible girls wanting Tanya out of the way. He gets as far as 3; Stacy, Sarah and Jamie. He almost immediately dismisses Sarah and Jamie, they just seemed too nice and sweet to do such a thing to Tanya, but realistically he knows he can’t. The nicest people have turned out to be monsters before. He has to ask for Luis’ help to get the rest of the names down, and has to promise Luis to buy him a pizza later for not asking any questions. Luis merely chuckles and shakes his head when Sam agrees.

“You’re funeral, man. I wouldn’t get in the middle of all of it, but whatever.”

With his list complete, he heads over to Tanya’s room to see if he can question her about the girls on the list, but he never gets to talk to her properly. The fire alarm is screaming from inside her room and when he opens the door, smoke comes billowing towards him. He calls for Tanya and hears her calling back from the other end of the room.

“Sam? I’m fine, don’t panic!”

“What happened?”

“My bed set fire. I must have dropped a match on it or something.”

Sam makes his way to Tanya, who is already opening a window and trying to blow the smoke out. She’s coughing and her face is smeared with soot, but Sam hesitates getting her out of the room. The smoke is obscuring her view and it gives him the perfect cover to quickly search her mattress and bed. The hex bundle is lodged between the mattress and the headboard and Sam quickly puts it away. He then grabs Tanya and ushers her out the door. He looks her over in the hallway, but she smiles reassuringly.

“I’m fine, Sam, really. It was just an accident.”

If only she knew. Not only has the witch stepped up his or her game - this is the second spell today - but it’s turned dangerous now too. He has to stop things now.

******

Sam helps Tanya sort out her bed and room with the RA before leaving her to her night’s sleep. Tanya seems fine, convinced it’s just an accident and her room is fine, but Sam knows better. He sits up until it’s completely dark outside and the dorm is silent. He then digs out his lock picks and flashlight from the bag he threw at the bottom of his closet when he first arrived - no reason to throw away good tools - and heads out to the main building.

The security offices have one man in them after midnight and Sam has to wait for him to go on his rounds to break in. He’s in fast as ever, secretly proud he hasn’t lost his touch yet. He quickly scans the cabinets for tapes; he knows every hallway in the dorms has a security camera 24/7. But when he plays them at double speed, seeing nothing but people and people and more people he realizes he’s not gonna catch the witch this way. There’s too many people roaming the halls every minute for him to really pick anyone out from the crowd, unless they wear a sign that says ‘I’m a witch, come kill me’. Not to mention he doesn’t know 95% of them and couldn’t say who would dislike Tanya and who wouldn’t.

He listens for the guard, making sure he’s not close-by, before putting in the tape from the gym. He feels like a pervert, but the ladies’ dressing room doesn’t show more than the entrance anyway. He finds the correct time and plays the tape at normal speed. He’s not sure what he’s looking for, for all he knows the hex had been planted before Tanya went to the gym, but at least there are less people than in the dorms. He sees Tanya enter the dressing room alone, no one with her, no one coming in right behind her. A few other women walk in and out, but no one Sam recognizes and no one looking like a murderous witch. And what if it’s a man?

He’s just about to scan through the tape one last time when he hears the dangle of keys outside the door. The security guard is fast getting the door open, but Sam’s faster. He’s got the tape back in its place and himself squashed in the supply closet just when the guard turns to look at the monitors. Sam hears the guard settling in and he releases the breath he was holding slowly. He’s in for at least an hour’s wait, but he’s been moshed in smaller spaces before. Next to his brother in the queen-sized bed in some crappy motel, elbows and knees knocking into each other from all sides. In a basement not higher than his hips, pressed between his father and Dean, hiding from the lady of the house so she doesn’t try to kill them before they got to her remains. Under a desk one memorable night when the professor of ancient Greek mythology came back earlier and stealthier than expected as they were trying to find the book the man had used to garner him powers of the gods. His back still aches thinking about it. At least he’s not bent over awkwardly this time, or nose-deep under someone’s smelly armpit.

The guard leaves exactly an hour later on his next round and Sam slips out of the security offices and back to his room. Half his night wasted, still no closer to finding the witch and now he’s tired too. Thank god he doesn’t have an early class tomorrow.

Morning comes at ten am and with fresh coffee and a bagel from Luis.

“Morning, my man. You look like you could use this. Courtesy from the boss-man.”

He takes the coffee and bagel from Luis’ job at the coffee shop on campus gratefully and yawns in response.

“Thanks. Late night.”

Luis smirks.

“I’ll say. I heard you come in around three, dude. Where the hell were you?”

Sam blushes and looks away. He’s always been a shitty liar and Luis is scarily good at poking through his thinly veiled excuses. This time, he takes Sam’s silence the wrong way though, but Sam’s thankful for it.

“You dog! Who is she? Did you finally make a move on Jessica Moore?”

Sam just rolls his eyes and heads back to his room to grab a towel and his toiletries.

“It’s not Jessica Moore and I didn’t make a move on anyone. I was just... out.”

“Mm-hm, out.”

He can hear the quotation marks in Luis’ response, but he’s out the door before he can badger Sam more. He drains the coffee and inhales the bagel before quickly showering. He’s decided to keep a close eye on the party at the common room - and Tanya at the same time - to try and intercept the witch when he or she goes to plant a new hex. Because the one thing Sam’s sure about is today is not the day the witch is going to give up. Not on Halloween.

He runs into Tanya on his way back to his room. She’s already dressed in her costume; a sexy pirate complete with eye-patch.

“Hey Sam! Thanks for your help last night. Again.”

“It’s fine, really. I’m just glad you didn’t get hurt.”

She grins sheepishly.

“Me too. I feel like I’ve been leaning on you a lot these past few days. I just... I hope I’m not burdening you or anything.”

“Oh no, not at all! You just needed some help and I was able to offer that. Don’t worry about it.”

“Well, thanks then. Just let me know if I can ever do anything for you, okay?”

She elbows him softly with a waggle of her eyebrows.

“With Jessica maybe?”

Sam groans. Does everyone know about his little crush?

“It’s not public knowledge, don’t panic. Luis told me when he was asking around who was coming to my party. He seemed really invested in whether or not Jess was coming, so I thought he was the one with the crush. He spilled though. I can set you up if you want? I’m pretty sure she doesn’t hate you?”

He waves her off. He doesn’t really want anyone meddling in his life, especially not today.

“Nah, but thanks. Just save some beers for me, okay?”

“Sure thing!”

She turns back to go to her room, but stops and swings back around. She’s got a frown on her forehead and a hesitant look on her face. That can’t be good.

“What? Did something happen?”

She shakes her head, but the frown doesn’t leave.

“Come on, Tanya, spill.”

“It’s just... It’s probably nothing, but... I had the weirdest dream last night. It’s probably nothing, but with all the strange shit happening, I just thought...”

“What did you dream?”

“Just... Weird stuff, okay? Like... Death. Mine. And running. I was running for my life, but I could never get away. Something was following me, something evil, you know? And then I was suddenly trapped in a box, like a coffin. And there were all of these bugs around me and on me. And then suddenly I’d be running again. It was a constant loop of me running and then being trapped and dying. I don’t know, it was just weird.”

Sam’s immediately alarmed. It sounds a lot like a dream spell; a spell where you can control a person’s dreams and turn them bad. Tanya’s lucky she woke up at all, a stronger witch could have killed her.

“That does sound strange.”

“Yeah. It kind of scared me, but I guess it’s just all the Halloween stuff and the party and everything. It’s probably just stress.”

Sam nods, what else can he do, but resolves to find the hex before the party tonight. This can’t go on any longer and the more that happens, the more he gets the feeling it’s coming down to a show down at midnight. Freaking witches.

“Yea, that’s probably it. Look, I gotta go, I’ll see you tonight?”

“Sure, see you later!”

“You look great, by the way.”

“Thanks, can’t wait to see your costume!”

He watches Tanya walk away with a muttered ‘not a chance’. He’s going to a Halloween party and he’s about 95% percent sure it’s gonna end badly. No way is he doing a costume too. He already hates Halloween as it is.

He gets stuck in his room for the rest of the day, helping Luis with his Biology test and finishing his own homework. He can hear people going up and down the hallway to Tanya’s room and back and with every passing minute, he gets more and more anxious. He should really search her room and the common room before the party, but Luis needs his help and he’s got to finish his homework or he’ll be behind in class. He hasn’t gotten much done the day before either and he hates being behind. He’s never gonna get into Law school if he falls behind on any of his classes.

It’s past five pm when the music starts and the party is a go. Sam and Luis are still studying, testing each other and helping with papers, but Luis is a real social guy and when there’s a party, he’s going to be there.

“Okay, enough for today, I’m going out.”

Sam glances at the clock and back to his homework. He’s got a ton of work to do, but then he’s always got a ton of homework. He isn’t gonna get anything done now anyway, not when the party has started and Sam has a job to do. Nothing’s more important than doing the job, Sam, nothing. He can practically hear his father’s voice in his head. For once, he agrees. He’s not gonna let his new friend get hurt over a stupid party.

He lets Luis talk him into changing his clothes - “if you're not gonna wear a costume, at least wear a clean shirt” - and comb his hair. Job or not, Luis knows for sure Jessica Moore is going to be there and Sam figures he should at least try to look presentable instead of like he's in the middle of a witch hunt. Literally.

It's six thirty by the time Luis is done with his costume and makeup - “I don't wake up looking like Edward Scissorhands, you know, that shit takes time”. Sam just rolled his eyes and kept an ear out for any weird stuff happening. It was silent, almost too much so. He’s got too much room to doubt, overthink, question what he knows. When they finally get to the common room where the party is in full swing, he scans the room for anything suspicious; people standing out from the crowd, hexes disguised as decorations, anything and everything that strikes Sam as weird but anyone else as normal for Halloween.

Nothing. Just the standard pumpkin decorations, fake spiders and eyeballs in the punch and spiderwebs along the ceiling and walls. Tanya’s done a great job in decorating; even going so far as to add fake tombstones and bugs around the room. The punch is colored black, the candy all looks like fake teeth and eyes. Pretty much everyone is dressed in a costume, more than one of them witches. Not that he expected it to be that easy, but he hoped that the inexperienced witch would also be dumb enough to maybe give himself or herself away like that. The room is packed, a lot of the people in there not just from their dorm and Sam gives up hope of spotting the witch by simple deduction. He needs a new strategy.

Before he can come up with a new plan though, Tanya spots him from across the room and waves him over. Her smile is huge and she hugs him tight when he gets close enough.

“Sam! I’m so glad you’re here. Where’s your costume?”

He shrugs apologetically.

“I don’t really do costumes, sorry.”

Luis swings an arm around his shoulders and grins at Tanya.

“Sam here doesn’t even do Halloween, if you can believe that. We had to move heaven and earth to get him here. I may have promised to set him up with Jessica Moore.”

“Jess, huh? You have a thing for my friend, Sam?”

There’s a hard edge to Tanya’s tone, but Sam can’t really figure out why. Luis doesn’t seem to have noticed, yapping away about Sam’s hatred for Halloween, so after a few moments, Sam just files it away under stress over the party going well. He leaves Luis with Tanya and heads for the kitchen to find something to drink other than the nasty looking punch. He might have not been to any college parties, but he knows what people put in the punch; he doesn’t need the drunk-at-a-college-party experience, thanks. Especially not when he’s got a job to worry about.

The kitchen is surprisingly empty, just a handful of people charting, including Jessica Moore. She spots him as soon as he enters the kitchen and waves him over.

“Hey Sam, what’s up?”

She’s dressed as a witch and Sam takes a moment to appreciate the irony. He’s pretty sure Jessica is not the witch he’s hunting; for one she was never up for host of the party and secondly, she’s Tanya’s friend, she would never hurt her.

“Nice costume, you look good.”

“Thanks. So what are you dressed as? College boy?”

He laughs.

“College graduate, I aim high.”

She gives him an amused smile, before turning towards him and away from her friends.

“Not a Halloween fan, I’m guessing?”

He shrugs.

“Not really. I don’t care much for it, is all.”

“Okay, I can respect that. At least let me get you a cocktail. You were so good in helping Tanya at our tasting the other day and I know for a fact you never had a drop of any of them.”

Sam starts to object, but Jessica looks at him from under her lashes and he’s gone. Done for. He can only nod wordlessly, making her smile brilliantly and turn away for a second. When she turns back, she’s holding out a bright green concoction complete with umbrella and a slice of pineapple. Sam eyes it dubiously, but takes it from Jessica’s outstretched hand anyway.

“Do I want to know what this is?”

Jessica just grins in response, offering nothing else. He supposes it’s all he’s gonna get so he might as well drink it. It tastes like pisang ambon with pina colada, mixed with vodka and orange juice. It’s not bad, but it’s way stronger than anything Sam’s ever drunk – he’s a beer man, he doesn’t really care for liquor – and he breaks out in a cough. People around him laugh, but this time it’s because of something normal so he doesn’t mind too much. Jessica is laughing too, but it’s not laughing at him.

“I know, they’re strong. Sorry.”

“You mixed it?”

“Yeah. I went a little overboard on the pisang ambon.”

She grins mischievously, not at all sorry. Sam can only grin back; he’s crushing so hard it’s ridiculous.

“So, Sam, tell me about yourself. What do you plan on majoring in?”

They talk for what seems like hours, but is in fact only about half an hour or so. Sam’s seen Luis twice, both times getting the thumbs up from his friend with a lecherous grin. He ignores him in favor of asking Jessica about her classes. He’s on his third cocktail when Jessica’s eyes go wide with alarm.

“Don’t drink that!”

Before he knows what’s going on, she’s grabbed the glass from his hand and thrown it down the drain.

“What…? What happened?”

Jessica turns back, her eyes searching out other people with cocktails.

“Johnny, no!”

She grabs the cocktail from her friend's’ hand and tosses it to the sink. The glass breaks and the liquid pours down the drain faster than Sam can see. Jessica darts away from him to a group of girls not too far away and this time Sam sees what has got her so freaked. Every single cocktail is a dark brown, filled with crawling bugs and insects. A few people take a drink without looking, immediately gagging and dropping their glasses.

Things go fast after that. When the drinks are composed of, things go back to normal for a while; people sipping on sodas and bottled beer, even though the pitchers with cocktail go back to normal. Sam goes back to chatting with a confused, but optimistic Jessica; she’s convinced this is some kind of strange Halloween prank that turned out less funny than intended. Sam knows better, but he can’t really tell her the truth now, can he? He keeps an extra eye out anyway, for anything that resembles hexes or spells or chanting, but nothing comes up. There are too many people to know if anyone left to perform a ritual or spell; he’s got a limited view of the room the really see if anything funky is going on. But then a fire breaks out in the kitchen, right next to where Sam is leaning against the counter.

It’s the microwave that catches fire; a loud pop and crackle and then the smoke billows out from the back. The room is immediately engulfed in thick, grey smoke. It’s fast, too fast. Someone, Sam can’t really make out who through the tears running from his stinging eyes, manages to put the flames out before the entire common room fills with smoke, but the kitchen is a no-go for now. Tanya’s right there, dragging Sam from the kitchen to the main room, wiping his tears and asking him over and over again if he’s fine. Sam just wants her to go so he can search for anyone who could have done this, but she doesn’t let up. Sam lets himself get pulled away, but manages to drag Jessica with him. They settle on the couch in the main room, most of the manic dying down when it turns out no one is hurt and the fire didn’t really do any damage. Tanya fusses over Sam, Sam fusses over Jessica and Luis makes bad jokes to relieve the situation. It works.

Not half an hour later Jessica screams at her plate of food. There’s dozens of maggots crawling all over her food, and Sam instantly knows someone in the room is doing this; making the cocktails bad, setting fire to the kitchen, putting maggots in the food. He doesn’t know who, but he’s determined to find out. Jessica throws her plate away, as far as she can throw it, but most of it spills on her costume. Her shirt is ruined, streaks of tuna and sauce painting her. While she tries to wash it out in the bathroom, Sam tears through the room, trying to find hex bags or bundles. There’s nothing. No one else seems to have issues with their food, and with Jessica in the bathroom, nothing is happening, so Sam goes to find her.

Wait. With Jessica in the bathroom, not eating, nothing is happening.

It’s a clue, he knows that. He also knows it’s got something to do with him. He needs more info to be conclusive, but he’s pretty sure the witch is targeting not just Tanya, but also himself and possibly Jessica. He stops dead in his tracks in front of the bathroom door, unsure if he should go in or not. If the witch is not just targeting Tanya, but also Jessica and himself, he might be better off staying away from either of the girls. But then, how will he be able to protect them? It’s frustrating, not knowing what is what and having to make decisions based on that nothingness. After minutes of deliberating with himself, he decides he can’t decide right now and goes with his instinct. Stay with the girls and see if he can protect them.

He knocks on the bathroom door and calls out Jessica’s name.

“Jess? You in there? Are you okay?”

“Sam? What’s going on?”

Tanya’s looking at him strange from a few feet away. She looks almost angry, but why would she? Sam puts it down to the strange things happening these past few days, anyone would be a little stressed and weirded out.

“Jess spilled some food on her shirt, I was just asking if she needed any help.”

Just then, the door swings open and Jessica comes out of the bathroom, a big, wet stain on her shirt. She looks down at it with a frown and then back up at Sam and Tanya.

“This sucks.”

Tanya hurries forward to grab Jessica by her hand and she starts pulling her towards her room.

“I have a clean shirt for you, come on.”

Sam stops them though.

“Wait, no need for you to leave your own party. She can have my sweater.”

He strips his sweater off and hands it to Jessica with a small smile. She cocks her head and considers Sam for a moment. Behind her, Tanya frowns and crosses her arms over her chest. When Jessica takes the sweater from Sam with a wink and a smile, Tanya stomps away with a huff, leaving Sam and Jessica to stare after her. They both start laughing at the same time.

“Stress doesn’t suit her.”

“It sure doesn’t. I just hope she’s back to normal tomorrow, we’ve got a study date. Thanks for this, by the way.”

“You’re welcome. Just don’t spill on it, okay? I am not lending you my whole wardrobe.”

Jessica laughs and pulls the sweater on over her costume. No matter how sexy the pirate’s costume looked on her, Sam thinks she looks better drowning in his hoodie. Yeah, he’s really gone for this girl.

“So... You want to go back? I could use a drink after that.”

Sam hesitates.

“Are you sure? I mean, someone might pull another one of those sick pranks. I’m kind of... over them.”

Jessica laughs and loops her arms around Sam’s.

“Awww, is big bad Sammy afraid of the college bullies playing pranks? Come on, I’ll protect you.”

And just like that, he’s out of arguments not to go back to the party. He can’t tell Jessica the truth and he can’t come up with an excuse that doesn’t make him seem like a pussy. Instead, he forces a laugh at the joke and lets Jessica lead him back to the common room.

He glances at the clock in the now smoke-free kitchen. Eleven thirty. Half an hour until witching hour. He would put money on the bet the witch is waiting until midnight to pull out the big guns. Black magic can be dangerous, even - or maybe especially - when performed by amateurs. If a spell isn’t worked correctly, the hex can backfire and do serious damage to the one casting the spell. Depending on what it is, it could turn out to be bad for both the victims - Tanya, Jessica and possibly himself - and the witch. Which he doesn’t feel too bad about, but his conscience won’t let him think so vindictively.

The people at the party seem to have forgotten the fire and the poisoned cocktails and the maggots. Or maybe they just all assumed they were Halloween pranks and ignored the reality of it. Either way, Sam is still on his own trying to find the witch and stop him or her before midnight during a crowded party. He has no clue what the witch’s plan is, but it can’t be good.

Jessica pulls him to a corner of the room where it’s a little darker and quieter than the rest of the room.

“This way we can at least hear each other without screaming ourselves hoarse.”

Sam smiles, pushing all the dirty thoughts about other ways to scream yourself hoarse away in favor of focusing on getting through the night unscathed. Save lives first, sexy times later. He can practically hear Dean scoffing over it in his head.

He lets his eyes wander around the room every so often, without seeming to ignore Jessica. Everyone is enjoying themselves; laughing, drinking, dancing. The party is a success, Tanya should be proud. Instead, she’s standing at the snacks table, scowling in their general direction. Sam’s pretty sure it’s not directly at them, but he can’t quite figure out what she’s so angry at if it isn’t him and Jessica. He looks around, but nothing’s out of the ordinary around them, just people milling about having a good time.

“Sam?”

Jessica’s voice startles him from his thoughts and he immediately feels bad.

“I’m sorry, I zoned out. You were saying?”

But Jessica isn’t looking at him. She’s pointing at the window.

“What’s that?”

Slowly, everyone in the room focuses on the window, where there are tens, hundreds, thousands of bats are filling the sky. They’re everywhere, the sky is black with them. Every single person huddles up against the windows to see, an excited murmur goes up around the room, but Sam’s worried. Bats aren’t evil creatures, they don’t even have an evil meaning, but there are so many of them it has to be spell. No way this is natural.

The music gets turned off and the sound of bat wings scratching against the window fills the room. To Sam, it’s like nails on chalkboard, to everyone else it’s part of the ‘best Halloween effect I’ve ever seen!’. He fails to see the danger in it though, what would the witch’s end game be with this?

The answer comes in the form of shattering windows. The bats simply fly against them over and over, until they break. Glass falls, more and more windows shatter until the room is filled with bats. There’s screaming, bats attacking people, and Sam knows this is the witch’s doing. Create chaos so you can take out the intended victim. It’s smart, but Sam’s smarter. He’s been trained for this.

Jessica is right behind him, hiding from the sharp claws and pointy wings. Sam wraps his arms around her and pulls the hood in his sweater up and over her head.

“Don’t take it off until they’re gone. They can’t get to your hair or face like this.”

He pushes her in a corner, huddled in his hoodie, her back to the room and the bats. He then makes his way through the room, avoiding panicking people and flailing limbs, frantically batting away the flying creatures. He finds the hex hidden between the couch cushions, but it’s not the same as before. This is a hex bag and he knows exactly what’s in there, without opening it. It’s nasty and a step up from what the witch has been using so far. He or she is getting near to the intended goal, the end game and Sam needs to step it up.

He crushes the hex bag under his foot and burns it over the kitchen cooker. The bats are gone as soon as the first flame lights the little bag.

“Sam! Are you okay?”

Tanya’s eyes are big and scared and Sam feels bad for her. The witch is trying to ruin her party and doing a good job so far. People are able to forget innocent pranks where no one gets hurt, but this? This isn’t so innocent, some people got scratched open pretty bad.

“Yeah, I’m fine.”

Tanya closes in on him though, her hands roaming his face and arms.

“Are you sure? No cuts or wounds?”

He pulls his arm away from Tanya slowly, unsure what to make of her sudden clinginess. She’s worried, sure, but this seems a little too much considering he’s absolutely fine, without a scratch. Tanya keeps close though, unaware of Sam’s uncomfortable shuffling to get away from her.

“Sam?”

“Jess? In here!”

Tanya takes a small step closer just when Jessica enters the kitchen, putting a hand on his chest. Sam’s too late trying to push it away and Jessica’s eyebrow raises in - hopefully - amusement. Sam manages to pry Tanya’s hand away finally and he puts the entire kitchen between him and her immediately.

“Right. So... Uhm... I’m fine, thanks Tanya. How are the others?”

He gestures towards the main room with his head while shuffling a little further away from Tanya. Somehow his instincts scream at him to get away from her, but he’s still unsure of why. Tanya’s eyes darken before she nods and glares at Jessica.

“Yeah, I should get back to check up on them. Are you sure you want to stay though, Jess? Shit’s been happening to you all night, I understand if you want to leave.”

Jessica shakes her head with a grin and a wink at Sam.

“Nah, I promised Sam I’d protect him from the big bad evil pranks. I can’t leave him alone now.”

“Fine. Suit yourself.”

Tanya stomps off - again - leaving a confused Sam and amused Jessica behind.

“What was that all about?”

“I have no idea. She just got all... grabby? Checking to see if I was okay.”

“Right. It’s the drink, I think. She always gets a little handsy when she’s drunk.”

Sam supposes Jessica should know, she and Tanya have been friends for well over a year now, but it still doesn’t sit well with him.

“Come on, Halloween-grinch, lets get some drinks and I’ll tell you how we used to spend Halloween pranking my family when I was kids. They’re not scary stories, I promise.”

That makes Sam laugh and he relaxes a little.

“You’re not afraid of anything, are you?”

“Sure I am, just not of Halloween. It’s all fake, just pranks and illusions. Put me on a plane and watch me panic, though.”

“Seriously? Flying scares you?”

“Yeah. Planes crash, man!”

“No, I get it. I do. I just... I hate Halloween. It’s a sucky day and I hate it.”

Jessica laughs and digs around in the fridge before handing him a cold beer.

“Alright, story time. Come on, let’s find a couch and I’ll tell you all about the non-scary things I used to do at Halloween.”

Jessica tells him all kinds of stories about her family pranking their friends and neighbors when she was a kid and then later at high school. She’s a good story teller, animated and funny. Time flies and Sam completely misses midnight. It’s past one am when he looks at the clock again and by then he’s missed just about everything going on around him. It isn’t until Luis falls into his lap, he realizes the left-over party goers got their drink on after the bat-adventure. Luis is wasted, his words slurring like only the really drunk get.

“Hey man, I see you found her.”

Sam pats Luis on his head soothingly.

“Yeah, I found her, dude. How about I take you to bed, huh?”

Luis leers at him, but it comes out all drunk and wrong.

“I’m not the one you want to take to bed, man.”

Sam blushes, unable to look at Jessica, but Jessica is clearly awesome, because she laughs and gets up from the couch. For a moment Sam thinks she’s leaving, but she grabs Luis’ arm and starts hauling.

“Maybe later Sam can take me to bed, but right now you need to lay off the booze and go to sleep. Come on. Sam, help me out?”

Together, they get Luis on his feet and propped up against the wall so they can rearrange his limbs to haul him to his room. Luis sways, even supported by the solid wall, and starts yelling at the top of his lungs.

“You guys should kiss! You totally should. That’d be hot! I know, let’s play spin the bottle so you can kiss!”

They both laugh, Sam shakes his head.

“Sorry, he gets a little carried away when he’s wasted.”

“Don’t worry, you’re not exactly being subtle and I would actually like to kiss you once this moron is safely in bed.”

Sam snaps his eyes to Jessica in surprise.

“Yeah? I mean...”

Jessica laughs and presses a light kiss to his cheek.

“After we get sloshy here in bed.”

Sam’s about to put his shoulder under Luis’ arm when a piercing scream penetrates the air.

“Stop! Stop it! You’re ruining everything!”

The entire room comes to a halt, immediately silent save for the music. Tanya’s standing on the table staring straight at Sam and Jessica. Sam can practically see the hatred and anger in her eyes and he unconsciously steps between her and Jessica, shielding Jessica from Tanya. Someone finally turns off the music, leaving the room quiet, filled with confusion and tension.

“Really, Sam? Jessica? You want her? After everything we’ve been through together?”

Sam glances around the room, so many eyes on him it makes him nervous. And then Tanya’s words register.

“What? Been through together? What are you talking about?”

Tanya screams with frustration, pulling on her hair, stomping her foot. It alarms Sam, but there’s nothing he can really do until he knows what the hell is going on.

“I just wanted you to notice me! We would be so good together, Sam! Don’t you see? But you refused to acknowledge me. I tried talking to you, but you wouldn’t give me more than hello. Am I that boring, Sam? No! No, I’m not! I deserve to have you, you should be mine!”

Whispers of ‘she’s crazy’ and ‘what the fuck is her problem?’ go up around the room and Tanya screams again.

“Shut up! All of you, shut up!”

“Tanya, can we just talk about this? Quietly?”

She turns her glare back on Sam.

“No! You had your chance. More than once. The skin rotting off my body? The snakes, the mute spell, the cocktails, the maggots. You had your chance and you ignore me!”

“Wait, you did that to yourself?”

He can’t believe it. All this time, he got played. He can’t believe he’s been so stupid. It wasn’t about the party, it never was. He got it wrong this whole time.

Tanya’s voice lowers to a dangerous growl.

“You don’t get it, do you?”

Sam shakes his head in confusion.

“Get what?”

Tanya steps off the table and advances on him slowly, gets so close he can feel her breath on his face.

“I know who you are, Sam Winchester. Who you really are.”

His heart skips a beat and he has to swallow a few times to clear his dry mouth.

“You do?”

“You’re a hunter. You hunt people like me and kill them.”

Someone to their left snorts. Sam hopes it’s in disbelief, he really can’t have everything coming out like this. He can’t come out like this, at all. Tanya is distracted by it, turning her angry glare at the guy and Sam takes the chance to step back and create some space between him and Tanya.

“Shut up or die!”

When she turns back to Sam, there’s a crazy grin on her face. She cocks her hip and gestures to her body.

“I had to get your attention somehow and this body apparently wasn’t enough. So I did the one thing guys like you always fall for. Damsel in distress. Yeah, I did it all to myself, but I got your attention, didn’t I? I got what I wanted.”

Sam can feel his shock turn to anger. How could he have been so mistaken? How could he not have seen her for the crazy person she is?

“Really? You got what you wanted? Look around! You’re the insane freak of this party! Everyone thinks you’re crazy! You didn’t get me, but you got my attention alright. Along with everyone else’s”

Tanya looks around the room, a hesitant look sliding across her face. It’s all Sam needs to bring his point home. He takes two large steps towards Tanya and grabs her by the arms. He pulls her against his chest so he can talk in her ear without anyone overhearing.

“Think you can con me into your trap? Think again. If you know who I am then you know I can and will kill you. Maybe not right now, but soon. You’d better watch your back, because I am coming for you.”

Tanya rips herself from Sam’s grip to hiss at him like a cat. He can see her intention right before she charges him, nails reaching for his eyes. With an icy scream, she makes the move, but Sam’s faster. He ducks out of her way and grabs her around the waist. They tumble to the ground, Tanya pinned under Sam. She bucks and screams, but Sam’s stronger. Right now, he thanks his lucky stars for dad’s training.

He’s not prepared for the knee to his groin though. The air is punched from his lungs and he immediately lets go of Tanya to grab his crotch and gasp for breath. Tanya uses the opportunity to scramble up from under him and flee to the door. The crowd around them open a path as if Moses told them to, fear written across all of their faces. Tanya turns to them at the door, her voice shrill and hysterical.

“Maybe not today, but soon, Sam Winchester. You will be mine!”

The door slams behind her, every eye in the room turning to Sam. Pain is still soaring through his groin, but he knows he should get up and go after Tanya. Hesitant hands on his shoulders make him look up. Jessica smiles at him shakily and Sam lets her help him up.

“Are you okay?”

He nods, his voice isn’t working all that well just yet. He can feel everyone in the room stare at him now that Tanya is gone and he wishes they didn’t. He never wanted to be in the spotlight like this, he never wanted people to know more about him than ‘the tall guy with the floppy hair’, but here he is. Jessica seems to sense his discomfort though and she asks someone to turn on the music again.

“This is still a party, crazy woman or not!”  
The music is too soft and the murmurs too loud, but people are slowly but surely getting the party back on track. Sam watches as they check their drinks and food with a suspicious eye, but now that Tanya is gone, the tension seems to drift away. Sam lets go of the breath he didn’t realize he was holding.

“I should go find her, makes sure she doesn’t do anything stupid. Anything else stupid.”

“Are you kidding? She’s insane! You don’t have to do anything for her anymore!”

He shrugs. He knows Jessica is right, but she doesn’t know what Tanya is capable of. As far as Jessica’s concerned, Tanya is just a crazy girl with a crush on Sam. It doesn’t matter what happened the days leading up to this can’t be explained away, right now all she sees is her friend freaking out at Sam.

“I know, but I can’t really let her wander around on campus like that. There are Halloween parties everywhere, what if she disturbs more?”

Jessica sighs.

“You’re right. I just don’t want to see you get hurt. Watch yourself, okay?”

“Yeah. I’ll be okay. Don’t worry. I’ll be back.”

He throws Jessica a smile that he doesn’t get returned, she simply frowns at him worriedly.

“Okay. I don’t like it, but okay.”

He feels slightly better knowing she’s worried about him, it makes it easier to head out and look for Tanya. He’d been really enjoying himself with Jessica earlier and he thought she was too, but her words solidify it for him. She’s interested. He smiles to himself, deciding he needs to make this work or Dean’ll disown him for real.

Dean.

His brother should see him now. Working a case alone - he hasn’t gotten himself killed yet, he figures he’s doing okay - and a cute girl interested in him. He’d be proud.

His thoughts are interrupted by a hissing noise not far away. He squints, it’s already dark and the street lights around the campus grounds are too weak to really cast a light on the fields. He knows it’s aimed at him when it gets closer.

“Tanya? Don’t do this, please. We can talk about this, okay? Just... Let me explain.”

There’s no answer, just silence. He waits a few more moments before going on. He searches every dorm, creeping from shadow to shadow, avoiding the parties and people, hoping to catch Tanya stalking around somewhere. He comes up empty. The campus is too big for him to search by himself and Tanya isn’t going to make it easy, he knows. With a sigh, he heads back to his dorm. Tanya is gone. She’s just fucking gone. Vanished into thin air. Disappeared. Well crap.

He thinks for a few long minutes. Then does the only thing he knows to do in situations like this.

“Hey Dean, it uhm... It’s Sam. I uhm... I have a case. Here. At Stanford. It’s a witch. She’s uhm... She’s throwing a hissy-fit because she uhm... She had a crush on me and I didn’t see her like that and she thought I was interested in another girl and-”

He cuts himself off; Dean doesn’t want to hear him rambling. If he wants to hear him at all.

“Look, I know you probably don’t want to talk to me, but... I could really use your help. I don’t know what to do with this witch. She got away - somehow - and I have no idea how to find her.”

He pinches his nose, a nervous headache settling between his eyes. He welcomes the guilt like an old friend.

“I know you know people and have resources. Maybe you can try and find her and let me know where she is? I can take it from there then. Her name is Tanya, she lives in the dorms at Toyon Hall, same as-”

He cuts himself off again; Dean doesn’t want to know where he lives.

“”Anyway, her room number is 531c, second floor. She’s not there, I already looked, but maybe you... Maybe you can do something. With her hair or something. A location spell? I don’t know, I could just really use some help. I don’t have the stuff... Just... Don’t tell dad? That I took a case?”

He pauses, hesitates. Takes back.

“Never mind that last part, I can’t ask you to lie to dad. Just... Text me or something. Let me know if you get this. If you can help. Or something. yeah. So... Yeah. Uhm... Bye.”

He stares at his phone for what feels like hours, but it never beeps. No texts, no Dean.

He does the second thing that comes to mind in situations like this. He gets drunk.

******

Nothing happens for days. Tanya doesn’t come back, the rumors and whispers around Sam die down and everyone goes back to their normal schedules. Halloween over with and forgotten.

Sam hasn’t heard from Dean, but it’s not like he expected it really. He’s probably off somewhere hunting with dad, still pissed at Sam. It hurts a little, being ignored like that, but there’s nothing he can do about it now. The damage is done. He spends his free time trying to find Tanya; he’s desperate enough to tie loose ends that he goes out and buys supplies for a tracking spell on Thursday. He sets everything up in his room and waits for midnight.

Tanya’s on campus.

He debates going after her right this minute, but it’s been quiet the past couple of days since Halloween and Sam figures it can wait until tomorrow. If there’s anything he learned growing up, is that he needs to prepare properly. He goes to bed with a plan and a nervous heart.

A scream from outside wakes him at nine am. At first he’s sure he’s experiencing deja-vu, but then he hears a voice crying out for help and something about ‘dead’. He jumps out of bed to look out his window. The sight that greets him is bone chilling.

Jessica is standing over Tanya’s dead body. Tanya’s right leg is bent at a strange angle and her neck is snapped too far to the left. For a second he thinks Jessica did it. But she is crying, begging for help, for someone to call 911. Sam quickly makes the call, while deciding he’s not going to get involved right now. He’s done enough at Halloween. He waits for the cops to arrive and the paramedics to carry Tanya into the ambulance and drive off before he heads down to find Jessica.

There’s a crowd gathered around, everyone’s whispering and talking, staring at Jessica. She’s sitting on a bench with her arms wrapped around her. Her face is blank, emotions numb, tear stains covering her cheeks. A girl Sam recognizes as one of the dorm counselors is sitting next to her. She meets Sam’s eyes over Jessica’s head and they exchange a look. The counselor nudges Jessica up and leads them inside the building and out of the situation and crowd, to the RA’s office and sits her down. She then turns to Sam.

“You can take care of her?”

He nods, unsure of what he can do exactly, but he’s not gonna leave Jessica alone. The counselor turns back to Jessica, puts a hand on her shoulder in support.

“I’ll be back okay? Sam’s gonna stay with you.”

Jessica nods and they both watch the counselor leave. Jessica wipes her cheeks clean with her sleeve before turning to Sam. He sits down on the chair at the desk, unsure of what to say now that they’re alone. Jessica smiles though, like she can see just how uncomfortable he is.

“Don’t worry, I’m not gonna freak out.”

Sam blushes.

“I’m not... I wasn’t...”

Jessica laughs softly, making him blush even deeper red.

“I’m kidding, Sam. I really do appreciate you keeping me company.”

He smiles and gestures at the sweater she’s wearing. His sweater.

“You like it, huh?”

This time it’s Jessica’s turn to blush and look away. Sam’s heart skips a beat, this might work out.

“It’s comfy. Thanks for lending it me.”

“Don’t mention it.”

They sneak glances at each other in silence for a while, Jessica calming down from the adrenaline rush and the panic, Sam sobering up from the giddy butterflies in his stomach. It’s not until he sees her face cloud over that he speaks again.

“How’re you holding up?”

Jessica shrugs.

“Okay, I guess. Just a little shaken. It’s not every day you find your friend dead. No matter how crazy she was, she was still my friend.”

A sad chuckle that sounds suspiciously like a sob escapes her throat, fresh tears slide silently down her cheeks. Sam shifts and gives in to his impulse to grab her hand and he squeezes it softly.

“Did they say what happened?”

“The cops said something about a possible suicide. And after Halloween... She was unstable, you know? Apparently she’s been seeing the school shrink since she started here. They say she’s been on meds her whole life. I didn’t know, she never said anything... I don’t know what’s true and what not, but where there’s fire...”

Sam nods. He figures it’s a good an explanation as any. He knows it’ll be enough and no one will find any evidence to the contrary. Even though he knows it wasn’t anything close to a suicide.

Jessica wipes the tears from her face and takes a deep breath. Sam takes the moment to clear his throat and change the subject.

“Come on, let’s go get some coffee, have something to eat. Think about something else for a while, yeah?”

Jessica smiles at him gratefully.

“Yeah, I’d like that.”

******

“Hey Dean, it’s me. Sam. I uhm... I just wanted to ah... I guess I wanted to thank you. For... You know. The witch and everything. I don’t think I could have... You know, killed her... myself. So, yeah. Thanks. See you.”

THE END


End file.
